[Lopsa-regional-project] project start

[LOPSA-regional-support at LuftHans.com]

Am 09. Jan, 2006 schwätzte Steven Tylock so:

> I'm going to focus on this specific part of the latest post:
>
>> der.hans wrote:
>>> Eric Eisenhart asked:
>>> Does LOPSA want to be a "parent" organization for sysadmin specific
> groups
>>> or otherwise provide help along those lines?
>>
>> I'd like LOPSA to parent regional groups. Deciding that is part of our
>> project charter. We should come up with a plan and present it to the board
>> for approval.
>
> And suggest that in first reading perhaps I didn't get a full meaning of
> what was intended...-)

Guess I should better explain then :). I think I will do so in responding
to your ideas below.

> GVSAGE is a local in the Rochester, NY / surrounding counties area.
> LOPSA is an international organization (as far as I can see - or at least
> the intent is...)

I hope LOPSA considers itself to be an international organization, but I
don't speak for the board.

> Yes - LOPSA wants to have local organizations - but in a final state with a
> local in every modestly sized city and tens of thousands of members, a
> completely flat organization may not work best.  We should think of the
> levels of organization that we might want to a) start with, b) transition
> through, and c) end up with.
>
> Along those lines - every local is "the same" from many points of view, but
> a collection of 160 different ones may not be wieldy.  I can see a case for
> dividing into super-regions for management purposes when the "flat"
> organization reaches (say) 40.

I think we can just leave room for super-regional groups and let them
happen when the region or LOPSA feel it's time for a super-regional group.

> That is - trying to use a country / region / state organization does not
> make sense initially; but may make sense in the final stages.

I was thinking LOPSA-$countrycode. I'm worried about overloading when we
start handling languages as well. How do we denote the difference between
DE or FR for the countries and DE or FR for the languages? I also want to
make sure we can denote the difference between CA for Canada and CA for
California.

I'm OK with allowing countries to decide how they want to further split.

For instance, for the US I was thinking LOPSA-US-$state, e.g. LOPSA-US-AZ,
for U.S.-based orgs. The states that want to further sub-categorize could
do LOPSA-US-$state-$subregion, e.g. LOPSA-US-AZ-Phoenix.

> LOPSA should be able to offer the same resources if it is flat or there are
> levels, and having a "NorthAmerica-NE" focus group may allow different
> things to happen.

Yeah, at some point we might want super-regional orgs like LOPSA-EU. Maybe
just not use such abbreviations for them, e.g. LOPSA-EuropeanUnion or
LOPSA-Europe.

> As a leader of a local, we'd look for mailing list support, and possibly web

Right now we can offer mailing list support. Well, once this project
decides how it wants to handle giving out mailing lists we can.

We want to offer web site hosting, but LOPSA's not yet ready for that.

We also need to verify that we can host channels on the IRC servers or
maybe host jabber servers.

Let's get the mailing lists working and then see about what other
networked services LOPSA could offer regional groups.

> site support.  We have our own domain right now, but I can see that
> potential.  In the past, I have looked for show trinkets and material to
> advertise the national group.  (local tech shows will often donate booth
> space to a group like ours - adds space, buzz, and we gave good tech
> talks...)

I hope LOPSA can help obtain/organize giveaway materials, speakers, and
promotion for regional groups.

> It would be good to be able to periodically troll on the national list for
> the local org - and by troll I mean post "we encourage you to be a member of
> the local mailing list for your area, here they are..."  [or perhaps make
> the national list a collection of the locals and do that automatically...]

I want an event listing like the one on php.net. In fact, I want to be
able to be able to view listings based on particular categories, such as
region.

> And I agree on speakers - speakers have been asked for, and help in
> organizing would be appreciated.  [It is much work, and I cannot say that
> attendance stays high when we have them or not]

Good speakers and food tend to provide a good turnout, in my experience.

Maybe LOPSA can get a sponsorships from some chains for free food for
local groups ;-).

ciao,

der.hans
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